Drones in Firefighting
What could be some benefits of intentionally setting fires in areas of vegetation?
Prescribed Fires
Prescribed fires are fires that are carefully planned and intentionally set by firefighters or land managers.
Prescribed Fires
Group Discussion Questions on Prescribed Fires
How Can Drones Be Used to Set Prescribed Fires?
Drones can be used to set prescribed fires, called UAS aerial ignition.
The Engineering Design Process
Let’s look at a variation of what is called the Engineering Design Process (EDP) which is a series of steps used by engineers to solve problems.
Case Study
According to the assistant fire management officer, “When the Ramshorn unit is ignited by hand, it takes two days to complete the burn. With the additional support of the UAS, we were able to ignite the unit early, allowing smoke to disperse throughout the day, and complete the project in one day.” (Reported by the US Forest Service.)
In April 2021, the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia became one of the many places where UAS aerial ignition has been adopted. The staff first used drones for prescribed fires in the 1,005 acre Ramshorn project area where they have previously ignited prescribed fires by hand or with helicopters. “The UAS dropped small biodegradable spheres . . . containing potassium permanganate on the project area.”
Activity Scenario
You are using Hopper to ignite 5 equally-spaced dot fires between two streams. The streams are control lines and they are 20 feet apart. The first and last dot fires should be the same distance away from each control line.
You will write and solve an equation that represents this scenario with the unknown d representing the distance between each dot fire. Then, you will write code Hopper using a loop to fly across the fire zone and place (by hovering) 5 equally-spaced dot fires.